E1M5: Pilgrimage Through Desolation (Sold Soul)

E1M5: Pilgrimage Through Desolation is the fifth map of Sold Soul. It was designed by Fryuko and uses the music track "The Militia" from .

Yellow key
Press the switch behind you to lower the floor, kill a couple of fire gargoyles and a golem ghost ahead then go straight forward to an icy area with a few more monsters. Open the door in the north-west corner and go round the corner to see a gargoyle protecting an Ethereal Crossbow, then run west across some lava to a trident switch and press it - this will open some bars in the ice area, but will cause two sabreclaws and a weredragon to teleport behind you. Go back to the ice cavern and head through the now-open north doorway to a junction, take the west fork and follow the path past some sabreclaws (and an iron lich on thou art a smite-meister (SM) skill level or higher) to a plateau with undead warriors.

Enter the tunnel in the north-east corner and follow it past several monsters until you reach a gate which is ajar. Step through the gate to collect a Hellstaff and Silver Shield (which will cause a disciple of D'Sparil to teleport behind you), then open the door of the north building and turn right to go down some steps; the room ahead contains a red trident switch guarded by a disciple and golem ghosts. Press the switch and dodge two undead warrior ghosts that are revealed to your left and right, then go back outside and enter the ruined building on the west side where you can now collect the yellow key. On SM or higher, taking the key will allow a chaos serpent to teleport behind you.

Green and blue keys
Return to the plateau and open the yellow key door in the east wall, go through then head north to another yellow key door which is defended by undead warriors and nitrogolems. Go through the door and dispatch a couple of waiting disciples, then continue north to another door (noting a chaos serpent on your right on SM or higher) and open it to reach a valley which is defended by various monsters including undead warriors, sabreclaws, ophidians and chaos serpents. Take the east path to a green key door, then look south to see steps that go up to the south-east ledge overlooking the valley; from here you can run north and west across two gaps to get to the north ledge, which holds the green key. Taking the key will cause one or two chaos wyverns to teleport in.

Go back to the green key door and open it, then run east across a bridge until it turns a corner; parts of the bridge will fall away as you cross it, and the central chamber will open to reveal a pack of undead warriors. Continue south and west past an iron lich (destroying it will activate three crushers above its platform) to reach a teleporter that leads to the central chamber, then open the gray door in the west wall to reveal a disciple guarding a second teleporter. This second teleporter will put you in an octagonal room with two sabreclaws and a maulotaur; you must kill the maulotaur to raise a step, giving you enough height to climb up to the blue key inside the lava cauldron in the middle of the room. Taking the key opens the north-east wall, revealing a disciple guarding another teleporter that leads back to the bridge area.

Exit
Go back to the valley, where a death knight has appeared on SM or higher, then head north into an ice cave with a blue key door. Open the door to enter a room with ophidians and disciples who are guarding three switches; you must press all three switches to raise the light-blue pillars in this room, which you can then climb to reach the exit teleporter at the top, but doing so will bring in weredragons, chaos serpents and iron liches. When all three switches have been pressed, run up the blue pillars until you reach a blue trident switch that will lower the final pillar like a lift. Get on top of this pillar and ride it up to the very top to get to the exit.

Secrets

 * 1) After the first bars, head east and use the south wall near the ice to find a teleporter to a Tome of Power. (sector 174)
 * 2) At the west walkway with the lava to the west, make your way to the north-east, then drop down before the top and enter the north-east teleporter to find a Ring of Invulnerability. (sector 271)
 * 3) In the north-west room with the switch to lower the yellow key, go to the south-west corner and look west for a button tucked in the wall. Shoot it and quickly run back to the previous room, getting on the desk with the step (note that the step disappears after a couple of seconds). Open the door here to get a Map Scroll and a Quartz Flask. (sector 701)
 * 4) In the large valley, head to the green key door on the east side and find a small switch south-west of the columns. This reveals a switch column at the north end of the green key behind a rock, for only twelve seconds. Go there and use the switch before it closes. The raises a column at the south end of the valley for twelve seconds. Cross the rocks again as fast as you can and cross the column to the west side. Follow the path to a cave with a Rune Platebody, Sun Runes and Lesser Runes. (sector 1021)

Current records
The records for the map at the Doom Speed Demo Archive are:

The (absence of) data was last verified in its entirety on December 16, 2021.

Things
This level contains the following numbers of things per skill level: